PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It was a moment Don Kelly shared as he was being introduced as the Pirates permanent manager Monday at PNC Park. It was a flashback that if you grew up here, you immediately understand what he was saying.
“I was a fan first,” Kelly said. “Growing up, in 1992, Francisco Cabrera ripped my heart out.”
Francisco Cabrera was the Braves infielder who had one hit in the 1992 post-season, it was a single to left field that scored Sid Bream from second base and send Atlanta to the World Series instead of the Pirates. Years later while playing for the Detroit, Kelly found out Cabrera was a Tigers minor-league coach.
“I made sure I told him that he ripped my heart out in that moment,” Kelly said. “That was gut-wrenching. That’s something that still drives me. I was 12 years old when that happened, and it still drives me to this day – and I understand Pittsburgh fans because I am one.”
It’s more than that as to why Kelly was hired on as the full-time manager going forward. GM Ben Cherington said for six years he’s only seen Kelly do things for two reasons.
“One is to help somebody else,” Cherington said Monday. “The other is to help the Pirates win.”
“That sounds simple. It's also incredibly hard to do every hour of every day, and incredibly powerful. And because he's done that, he has earned trust in that clubhouse, throughout the organization. He has credibility.”
“They’re passionate,” Kelly said of Pirates fans. “They’re relentless. It's going to be on both sides. I know that when we are winning here in Pittsburgh the fans are going to be there. We also hear it whenever we’re not doing the things that we need to do. That’s what drives me, that is what drives us every single day to be the best version of ourselves, to be the best version out on the field and to work tirelessly towards bringing winning baseball back to Pittsburgh, which we are going to do.”
“We’ve taken strides this year in doing that. We are certainly not there yet. We are on the track to get there. But we are on the way and I think that the culture in the clubhouse, the players’ commitment to each other, to winning and, honestly, in representing Pittsburgh in the right way, the way that I’ve known the city as a blue-collar, hard-working town that does those things every single day.”
“That’s the standard that we expect from our players: To show up and work tirelessly.”
Kelly didn’t play Division One baseball or go straight to the majors. He worked his way there. He said he never had a multi-year contract. It was always just working year-to-year and sometimes day-to-day to keep his dream going that would eventually go from playing to coaching.
“It’s humbling man,” Kelly said. “To grow up here in Pittsburgh, in Mt. Lebanon and go to Point Park and to now be sitting here as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, it’s extremely humbling and you know, understand that it’s on myself, the coaching staff and the team to deliver on that.”
Kelly credited his time playing for and then coaching with Hall of Famer Jim Leyland. You can see similarities in that fire and passion for this job. The results were better than earlier in the year under Derek Shelton, 59-65 overall, 32-33 after the All-Star Break and 37-25 at home. But it’s not just the numbers, there was a connection between Kelly and his players. They played better fundamental ball under him. He had difficult conversations with them, but he also said there is much more to do.
“We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard for baseball in Pittsburgh and I think that we’ve laid a foundation for that and totally believe that we are going to get to that, hold that standard and bring playoff baseball back to Pittsburgh.”